Figure 3: Scheme of electrodes attachment.
3 EXPERIMENTS
We assume that regular informative athletes’
functional diagnostics should be the basis for the
planning of the training process.
Experiment 1
Participants and Methods. From May 2010 to
May 2014 a large group (n = 305) of athletes from
different kinds of sport (cross country skiing,
biathlon, track and field, triathlon, swimming,
Greco-Roman wrestling, sport games, etc.) aged
from 10 to 50 was examined. Among the
participants there were athletes of various skill levels
from novice (n=38) and intermediate level (n=239)
to advanced athletes (n=28), including those who
had achieved international level.
By novice we mean those athletes who engaged
in sport not longer than 3 years ago. Intermediate
athletes have 4-7 years of serious training experience
in the chosen kind of sport. Special attention was
given to representatives of endurance kinds of sport
(cross country skiing, track and field and biathlon).
Results And Discussion. To investigate the
functional state of the athletes we chose the most
informative for sports activity hemodynamic
indicators.
Heart rate (HR) is the most accessible and
informative indicator of the development of athletes’
cardiorespiratory system. HR at rest for adult
representatives of endurance cyclical kinds of sport
is less than 55 beats/min. The lowest value recorded
during the experiment was 28 beats/min. – in the
well-trained female who has been practising cross-
country skiing for more than 30 years has such. An
athlete’s HR at rest that is over 55 beats/min
indicates insufficient heart function for elite sport
and/or muscular system domination over the
cardiovascular development preventing success in
endurance sport. The best representatives of
"aerobic" sport with a duration of competitive
activity over 20 min, including sports games, also
have low heart rate. For elite athletes with a
predominance of speed and power parameters in
competitive activities a heart rate within 60±5
beats/min is permissible. High pulse of the latter
may not be the limiting factor in competitive
activity; however, it does not allow an athlete to
cope with a large amount of physical load required
for high performance sport.
The stroke volume (SV) values of untrained
adult men do not exceed 100 ml, well-trained adult
females have 120±15 ml, male athletes – 140±17 ml,
while the best representatives of sports requiring
endurance show SV 180 ±14 ml (Seluyanov, 2002).
These indicator values should be a reference point in
examining athletes.
Cardiac output (CO) is the indicator of cardiac
systolic function and is equal to HR multiplied by
SV. Increasing SV and CO during long term
exercise is one of the main effects of endurance
training. At the same time the growth of CO should
occur due to SV rise, but not due to heart rate rise.
Large end diastolic volume (more than 190 ml)
provides sufficient stroke volume and cardiac output
and is the guarantor of good tolerance to high
intensity work load in training and competitive
activities.
An ejection fraction changes from 60 to 65 and
serves as an indicator of fitness level and the
intensity of the training process. Regular extensive
endurance training does not increase ejection
fraction (Scharhag, 2002). The highest values of
ejection fraction are observed in sport game players.
In cyclical kinds of sport ejection fraction increases
correspondingly to the athlete’s fitness level
enhancement to the competitive activity. It is
explained by analysing the physical load structure
per year: the closer the competition, the more
intensive workouts are used, the higher the ejection
fraction.
Breathing rate. It is considered that special
training of the respiratory system is not required for
well-trained athletes as it develops itself during
physical training. However, 12,13 % of the
examined athletes have higher than normal breathing
rate. The normal number of breaths per minute in
adults is correlated with the heart rate as 1:4.
Breathing and hemodynamics are interdependent
processes (Donina, 2011). In case of high breathing
rate in athletes you should first check blood
hemoglobin, hematocrit and lung capacity, secondly,
exclude post training acidosis and, thirdly,
fermentopathy and heart disease. For enhancing
respiratory function in healthy athletes with high
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